About Massimo Mazzucco Expertise I`ve been an international fashion photographer for over 20 years. I can answer question on how the market works, what kind of different clients are there out there, (what does it take to get them,) and what`s expected of you from each of them.
Also, naturally, I can answer most common technical questions. With one huge caveat, however: It`s not "What filter do you use" that gets you up there, it`s "What filter do I choose to get what I want to get" that does it. Understanding the objective (pun unintended) comes first, technique is only the means to it.
Experience Fashion magazines (mostly Italian - Grazia, Gioia, Amica, Moda -- also US's Seventeen, Mademoiselle, etc., plus fashion catalogues all over the world).
Organizations belong to Strictly self
Publications see above
Awards and Honors As a filmaker, which I now am, not as a photographer
Expert: Massimo Mazzucco Date: 4/10/2008 Subject: I am moving to New York to work in the fashion photography field
Question Hi Massimo!
I am about to graduate from the Art Institute of Colorado, and will be moving
to New York to begin my career in fashion photography. I have many
questions, as well as looking for some advice. If you could please be so kind:
- I plan to assist to begin with; do recommend any ways of going about this,
and/or any fashion photographers that would be good to contact?
- What would you recommend I take several jobs if possible?
- What is an estimated income for a person starting out (in my position) and
what would you estimate a full time fashion photographer's salary, who has
been in the business for a while?
- Any other advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you for your time and help. I will be visiting NY in August, so if you
would by any chance be willing to meet with me in person, please let me
know.
Thanks in advance!
Nick Lorenzen
970-581-8535
nicklorenzenphotography.com
Answer The Career of a Fashion Photographer
There are two kinds of fashion photographers, the one who is best in studio pictures, the one who is best outdoors. Rarely do you get one that is equally good at both.
Outdoors photographers will spend most of their time on location, scouting for the best spot to take their next shot. Studio photographers spend most of their time either working or experimenting with different lighting set-ups in studio.
Beyond the stereotyped image we get from the movies, however, the job of a fashion photographer is as hard and demanding as any other job, and I strongly suggest seeking this career only if you have a true passion for images and visual arts in general.
To become a working fashion photographer, at some point you need to show a client (usually a magazine, in the beginning) enough test pictures (fashion pictures with models that you took on your own) that they’ll trust you can deliver what they need.
To learn how to take those pictures –- to learn the trade, that is -- there are plenty of schools around, but I strongly suggest becoming a working photographer’s assistant instead. That’s how you learn the hands-on, daily routine that a school will only be able to ”describe” to you, at best.
You then look for work by submitting, either by yourself or through an agent, your growing portfolio to potential clients (magazines, advertising agencies, etc.): the better it gets, the better jobs you’ll get... it’s a catch-22, and to get the first assignment is really the tough part.
The pay scale is the same than in any other freelancing/artistic business: it can go from zero to the sky. It depends from how much they want you. Same for the amount of traveling: a studio photographer may never leave town in his career, a location one may not come home for two months in a stretch.
Major point is, you don’t look at money until money starts looking at you. You become a fashion photographer, as I said, only if you feel that’s what you’d really love to do, period.
(The same, in fact, goes for any other job in the world. Do what you feel you really want to do, not what you think “it’d be cool to do.”)
